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DCBSDCon

Brooks Davis - Isolating cluster jobs for performance and predictabilitySource: DCBSDCon
Added: 24 May 2009
Tags: dcbsdcon, dcbsdcon2009, slides, freebsd, clusters, brooks davisPDF (952 Kb, 24 pages)
At The Aerospace Corporation, we run a large FreeBSD
based computing cluster to support engineering
applications. These applications come in all shapes,
sizes, and qualities of implementation. To support
them and our diverse userbase we have been searching
for ways to isolate jobs from one another in ways
that are more effective than Unix time sharing and
more fine grained than allocating whole nodes to
jobs. In this paper we discuss the problem space
and our efforts so far. These efforts include
implementation of partial file systems vitalization
and CPU isolation using CPU sets.

Chris Buechler - Network perimeter redundancy with pfsenseSource: DCBSDCon
Added: 24 May 2009
Tags: dcbsdcon, dcbsdcon2009, slides, pfsense, chris buechlerPDF (6.2 Kb, 30 pages)
This session will first provide an introduction and
overview of pfSense and its common uses. It will
then go on to cover means of providing redundancy
for the critical portions of your network perimeter
using pfSense, including redundancy for your Internet
connections, firewalls and DNS. Live configuration
examples will be shown for as many of these topics
as the session's length permits. This session will
cover pfSense 1.2.1, but will also offer an overview
of some of the enhanced capabilities in this area
that pfSense 2.0 will provide in the future.

Kristaps Dzonsons - Process isolation for NetBSD and OpenBSDSource: DCBSDCon
Added: 24 May 2009
Tags: dcbsdcon, dcbsdcon2009, slides, openbsd, netbsd, process isolation, kristaps dzonsonsPDF (687 Kb, 27 pages)
In NetBSD and OpenBSD, user-land process and
process-context isolation is limited to credential
cross-checks, file-system chroot and explicit
systrace/kauth applications. I'll demonstrate a
working mechanism of isolated process trees in
branched OpenBSD-4.4 and NetBSD-5.0-beta kernels
where an isolated process is started by a system
call similar to fork; following that, the child
process and its descendants execute in a context
isolated from the caller. This system is the continued
work of "mult" -- first prototyped in a branched
NetBSD-3.1 kernel and isolating all system resources
-- pared down to a lightweight, auditable patch of
process-only separation for both OpenBSD and NetBSD.
I specifically address solutions to performance
issues and mechanism design with an eye toward more
resources being isolated in the future.

Epitome is the next generation backup mechanism.
It is based on the idea of providing instant available
backup data while removing duplicate files & blocks
from backups (yes really!). It is a disk based WORM
backup system.

This talk will go into the Epitome protocol and its
application. The code is generic enough that it can
address all 3 major (buzzword compliant) technologies
known as: CAS, DEDUP & SIS.

Robert Luciani - M:N threading in DragonflyBSDSource: DCBSDCon
Added: 24 May 2009
Tags: dcbsdcon, dcbsdcon2009, slides, dragonflybsd, concurrency, robert lucianiPDF (1.5 Mb, 23 pages)
Ineffective concurrency mechanisms in an operating
system can lead to low performance in both single
and multiprocessor environments. Practical setbacks
involved with attempting overly invasive kernel
changes have made it difficult in the past to
implement new and innovative concurrency systems.
This paper describes the rationale behind interfaces
in the DragonFly BSD operating system intended to
provide high performance and scalability on
multiprocessor architectures. Using a lock-free
processor centric approach, DragonFly BSD has
developed a unique thread system with the potential
for excellent scalability.